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Tennis greats topping torrid Open final

Darren Walton

Tennis titans Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have taken the game to unseen physical levels and the sport's greats are salivating at the prospect of another brutal Australian Open final on Sunday night.

A year after Djokovic outlasted Rafael Nadal in the longest and most torrid grand slam final in history, a five-hour, 53-minute epic, the Serb will return to Rod Laver striving to become the first man in the professional era to complete an Australian Open hat-trick.

And retired champions Andre Agassi, Mats Wilander and John Newcombe - who won a dozen titles between them in Melbourne - are predicting another centre-court war between the sport's two most supreme athletes.

Wilander says he can't believe how the game has evolved and believes it's no coincidence Djokovic and Murray are the last two men standing, just as they were at last year's US Open.

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On that occasion, Murray finally clinched his maiden grand slam title - after four finals defeats - with a four-hour, 54-minute five-set triumph over Djokovic.

It was one minute shy of the longest men's decider of all time in New York.

"Looking at both of them, it seems like they have made a phone call to one another saying: 'How hard are you working because I'm doing this'," Wilander said.

"'Oh, okay, that's too bad because I am doing this and then I'm going to do this.'

"This is unbelievably healthy for the rest of the guys on tour trying to keep up."

Wilander believes vastly improved diets, major advances in recovery methods and the introduction of masseuses to players' entourages is behind the incredible increase in stamina levels in men's tennis.

"I really think that's why people keep saying that these guys are much better athletes than the people were in the 70s and 80s," said the former world No.1.

"They know how to deal with themselves. They know how to deal with their bodies once they're done.

"Within 10 minutes, they've got to do this. Let's get on the table in half an hour to stretch. And they have a person to stretch them out.

"Not even the masseuse stretched us out. They'd massage the muscles and then you'd say: `Okay, I don't have to stretch, thank God',"

Wilander described Djokovic, whose domination and rise to world No.1 coincided with his switch to a gluten-free diet, as "scary strong".

"But he's skinny like hell," Wilander said.

"If you compare him to Pat Cash or somebody, he's a stick. But the strength he has in those little muscles is more than most probably what Pat Cash had in twice the mass.

"That's the big difference."

Wilander, Agassi - who said he could only marvel at the staying power of the sport's top dogs - along with fellow former champions Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Roy Emerson and Murray's five-set semi-final victim Roger Federer are all tipping Djokovic to win the final and claim his sixth grand slam crown.

Newcombe, though, is backing Murray "in a long bruising battle".

"He showed last night against Federer how fit is he," Newcombe said.

"He was fit last year, but he just seems to have strengthened his legs up.

"I called his (quarter-final) against (Jeremy) Chardy and I was down on courtside doing TV commentary and you could just see from there the strength of the legs.

"It's almost like when he gets a ball that he really has to run for, he gets really very excited because he's done all this training.